Wow.

I’ve been mad at myself for putting off reading this book for so long, but honestly, I picked it up at the perfect time. I’ve recently been focused on fostering more of a connection to Earth and this was perfect to read while on this journey.

This is one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read. It’s very enlightening to hear other’s views on their relationship to the earth and how similar they are to my own as well as how they differ from my own. I love learning about so many Black people who are working to heal the earth. I have fallen in love with every contributor🥰 And I always love nonfiction that is told in transcribed interviews, but I love that the editor gets to have a distinct voice as well through the introductions to each section. You can tell so much thought, care, and intention was put into this book. From the selection of contributors, to the introductions to each section, to the interview questions. Everything was written with intention.

This book feels like a hug. I’m not sure how to explain it, because the book isn’t cozy or anything, but it’s exactly what I needed in this moment. I feel so full after finishing this. This is one of my favorite books I’ve read all year and one of my fave books of all time! I feel like every Black person should read this book, as well as every ally, and I plan on throwing this book at everyone I know till they read it! (I will literally throw it at your head to get you to read it. So, let’s do this the easy way and have you add it to your TBR of your own volition k?)

Thank you Amistad & NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

an amazing read on history, connection with nature, folklore that is rooted extremely deep in nature, hope and deep connections with the deep consciousness of a continent that is carried if beliefs and tales.
the format of the book was a bit distracting for me, but the message is so clear!

This is a great collection from various scholars. There were some intriguing and fascinating accounts of traditional worship throughout the Black Diaspora. There will be triggers surrounding Black Folks and home grown terrorism. If nothing else, this will provoke more curiosity and research from the reader. Its a slow burn with an academic historical feel but I enjoyed the narration of this history.
#LeahPenniman. #BlackEarthWisdom #NetGalley #EARTHListeners

We needed this book so much. We're fortunate to have authors like Leah Penniman to collect all these beautiful Black experts together for us. The presentation of the dialogue is enjoyable, and there were handy introductions before each speaker. It was inspiring to hear from my people about this, in our voices, on tackling the biggest challenge of our time. Tell it like it is, call out the purposeful, systematic blocks and even sabotages to resolving past and current environmental issues! Mother Nature says we trippin', and it's true.

The scope of this book was more than I ever expected. Amazing that it took us from the farm to the city to the ocean, and every crack and crevice in between. The fact that the ocean is more the lungs of the planet than the forests was the biggest eye-opener here for me. So much we gotta do for our water, so much more attention which has to be paid.

And hell yeah, of course we bringing it all back to the arts, because only artists can shift social consciousness in the ways necessary to galvanize the people. This sentiment was so beautifully communicated in the chapter with Alice Walker, and expressed poetically later on.

Thank you Penniman for this very timely, very necessary collection.

Leah Penniman's Black Earth Wisdom blew my hair back. This collection of essays were crafted by experts in their field and is brimming with expertise, knowledge, and analysis that I didn't know I desperately needed until I picked up this read. I'm so overwhelmed with the masterpiece of the project of this work that I think I'll now add it to my annual reads. BRAVO!

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Black Earth Wisdom is a collection of conversations by Leah Penniman, a Black Kreyol farmer and co-director of Soul Fire Farm, with Black environmentalists. In order to create Black Earth Wisdom, Penniman interviewed a range of people and then compiled those interviews into "conversations" on specific topics. I really enjoyed the content of this book and learned a lot from the wisdom it contained. I think that, for whatever reason, interview-style books are harder for me to get into than other forms of nonfiction. I had the same challenge with Ezra Woodger's To Be a Trans Man. This was a fantastic book whose format didn't quite work for me - I think I may need to steer away from interview/conversation formatted nonfiction moving forward.

Thanks so much to Leah Penniman and Amistad for this ARC through NetGalley! Black Earth Wisdom is available as of February 28th, 2023.

I’m so glad a book like this exists. There are so many varying perspectives represented in these interviews with Black environmentalists. I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in this increasingly important cause!

From the publisher:
Author of Farming While Black and co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, Leah Penniman reminds us that ecological humility is an intrinsic part of Black cultural heritage. While racial capitalism has attempted to sever our connection to the sacred earth for 400 years, Black people have long seen the land and water as family and understood the intrinsic value of nature.

This thought-provoking anthology brings together today’s most respected and influential Black environmentalist voices —leaders who have cultivated the skill of listening to the Earth —to share the lessons they have learned. These varied and distinguished experts include Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Alice Walker; the first Queen Mother and official spokesperson for the Gullah/Geechee Nation, Queen Quet; marine biologist, policy expert, and founder and president of Ocean Collectiv, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson; and the Executive Director of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers, Land Loss Prevention Project, Savi Horne. In Black Earth Wisdom, they address the essential connection between nature and our survival and how runaway consumption and corporate insatiability are harming the earth and every facet of American society, engendering racial violence, food apartheid, and climate injustice.

Those whose skin is the color of soil are reviving their ancestral and ancient practice of listening to the earth for guidance. Penniman makes clear that the fight for racial and environmental justice demands that people put our planet first and defer to nature as our ultimate teacher.


This book was soulful and soul stirring. It brilliantly combined scholarship from the academy with the knowledge that was passed down and felling. I would recommend this alongside Soil by Camille Dungy.

Happy publication day to a highly anticipated collaborative project envisioned by co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, Leah Penniman! This is a conversation via interviews with Black environmentalists such as Dr. J. Drew Lanham, Angelou Ezeilo, and Dr. Lauret Savoy and an homage to ecological trailblazers like Dr. George Washington Carver, Audrey Peterman, and Alice Walker.

I learned so much from this one book! It is an important, necessary, inspiring read about our relationship to the earth and how it affects every aspect of us. Written in interview style, It’s an amazing read. It’s definitely a book I will pick up again and meditate on.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I loved this book. So very different, and so engaging. It is thoughtful and brilliant and full of wisdom. I truly feel like I need to reread it to be able to fully appreciate everything going on. Wonderful!

Penniman, author of Farming While Black, describes this book as “a tapestry of voices.” Those voices certainly shine through this collection of roundtable interviews with scientists, authors, journalists and other experts. The resulting discussions range from spirituality to soil, and from environmental justice to defending communities. One of the most important themes that arises is the need to listen not just to ourselves but to the Earth. (Speaking of listening, I reviewed this in ebook format, but the pending audio book seems like a fertile avenue for conveying these ideas and conversations.)

Many thanks to Amistad and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.

BLACK EARTH WISDOM by Leah Penniman is a revelatory and revolutionary work of nonfiction. Written as a series of interviews of BIPOC environmental activists, artists, and scholars, it is full of sacred wisdom and scientific facts about how BIPOC people have always had--and should continue to have--an ongoing history with the earth and nature. Although I found myself wishing to know more about what I, as an individual, could do to save the environment and listen to what Mother Earth is telling me, I still found this work incredibly inspiring. Thanks to this book, I now know my place in Black environmental history, and that, on its own, is a true gift.

This book was really amazing that had so many different ideas going on and it was really Truly I I open up. I like how they would do Stories in the beginning of the chapter to Explain what was gonna be about in that chapter. They would give a brief history and what they were Is saying in This chapter. Then they would have people talk about it. I learned a lot about what went On in this country. These black people when They became free they had laws to discourage them from moving forward. They took their land could not get loans. They also talked about Africa and how queer people were accepted through the religion. His book had a lot of different subjects and they were very interesting A lot of people don't know about the black experience. They see art and literature but a lot of them were pioneers to inform it in their lives. The medicine and the herbs were very interesting It's custom over from Africa. They had no choice because nobody was going to help. I especially like it when they were talking about the national parks and how they protec THAN. The black people could not go into the parks if they were afraid. The people who started the National Park system is very racist. This was a A real eye open up for me. I think this book should be taught in schools because there's a lot of different aspect

I love this book. The way it is set up as interviews with various individuals in various fields of knowledge is outstanding! It is very interesting to read the different interpretations of Earth Wisdom from the Black perspective, and Indigenous people are also represented. They are the stewards of the land. The BIPOC connection to the Earth (and the earth) is palpable throughout this book and it is a call to not only BIPOC individuals seeking connection to their historical and cultural roots and the roots of the Earth, but it is also for people of my own skin tone (white) who should be advised to take a broader look at their understanding of this rock we all live on, take advice from those who are and have always been more deeply connected to what truly matters, and feel more deeply in congress with the Earth.

There is so much knowledge in this one book. Highly recommend!

"It is hard for Western humans to relinquish the idea that they are in charge of everything. They want to go where they please and do what they want. They want to subdue all the Indigenous people and shift from one place to another. The broken world we are living in is sustained by brute force."

Black Earth Wisdom by Leah Penniman is on of the most powerful books of essays I have ever read. I am incredibly thankful to have been approved for this arc and this will certainly be a book I will be rereading and purchasing a physical copy of asap.

Penniman has compiled a collection of conversations with some of the most distinguished Black environmental thinkers alive. “Thinkers” is defined broadly—these luminaries are not only scholars, but also farmers, faith leaders, musicians, and climate organizers. An expansive conception of how to do environmental work is a great strength of this collection. Some notable names are Carolyn Finney, Alice Walker, Toshi Reagon, and Dorceta Taylor.

Penniman, herself a farmer, orients each interview with a bit of theoretical and historical context; by the end of the collection, we’ve hit a lot of the landmarks of Black environmental history. Her questions are anchored in a deep respect, and the interviewees both give overviews of their work and respond on the fly to her and each other. I did sometimes wish the questions had become a bit more probing, or that there had been more follow-up—some of the responses and concepts remained a little vague. I could see this volume, easily divided into short excerpts, being really useful for teaching, especially in environmental humanities courses like the ones I’ve taught. Its broad scope makes it a useful intro to a variety of environmental topics. Wish it had come out earlier!